150 



THE BEASTS OF PREY. 



on the spine and the neck and under portion of the 

 body are hairless. Its color is dark gray, sprinkled 

 with lighter hairs. 



The Banded Mun- A distinguished member of the 



goos, an group is the Banded Mungoos 



Interesting Animal. {Herpcstcs fasciatus). It is small, 



the length of its body being given as sixteen inches, 



and that of its tail as eight inches, but I have seen 



decidedly larger ones. 



The best authorities intimate that this Mungoos 

 inhabits all of eastern Africa, from the Cape of 

 Good Hope to Abyssinia, and also part of western 

 Africa. 



This dainty little sneak shows its bloodthirsty dis- 

 position plainly in its flashing eyes. Its food consists 

 of all small mammals, birds, insects, eggs and fruit. 



In western Africa the Banded Mungoos is often 

 kept in factories, missions and on mail steamers. It 

 is allowed perfect liberty, but never attempts to 

 return to its wild habits. It is a general favorite, but 

 like the domestic Cat, seems to think more of the 

 house than of people, though it sometimes does get 

 attached to persons and will jump into their lap; and 

 it is fond of being petted. It opens eggs with its 

 fore paws, or more frequently by throwing them back- 

 wards, between its hind legs, against some hard sub- 

 stance. It treats other small, round objects in the 

 same way, and it is advisable to keep valuables secure 

 from it. Pechuel-Loesche kept mercury, which he 

 used for an artificial horizon, in. a strong glass bottle, 

 which he found in pieces near a trunk, and E. Teusz 

 relates how he had a chronometer in Malandje, where 

 another one could not be bought, and his Banded 

 Mungoos had thrown it several times against walls 

 and trunks before its owner discovered what it was 

 that the animal played with so gleefully. 



The Crab I will mention one other member of this 

 Mungoos or group, the Crab Mungoos or Urva (Her- 

 Urva. pestes urva), for it is a peculiar transi- 

 tional form between the Mungooses proper and the 

 Gluttons. It does not essentially differ from the 

 Mungooses, but its body recalls the Glutton in sev- 

 eral respects. The snout is pointed and the body 

 stout. The toes are connected by large webs, and 

 the scent-pouches are highly developed. The back 

 is of a dingy gray color, with an admixture of brown; 



the under portion of the body and the legs are of a 

 uniform brown tinge. Sometimes it shows darker 

 stripes and a white band runs from the eye to the 

 shoulder. It is a large animal of its kind, measuring 

 from thirty-two to thirty-six inches, of which twelve 

 inches is taken up by the tail. 



Hodgson discovered the Urva in the swampy val- 

 leys of Nepaul. He thinks that it is rather aquatic 

 in its habits and feeds principally on Frogs and Crabs. 



Allied to the Mungooses are a few animals which 

 differ from them mainly by the structure of their feet; 

 the fore paws have five toes, the hind paws only four, 

 and the soles are partly covered with hair. 



The Foxy The Foxy Mungoos {Cy?iictis penicil- 

 Mungoos, an lata) is about twenty-eight inches in 



African Species, length, twelve inches of this length 

 being taken up by the tail. The fur is smooth and 

 the tail bushy. The general color is tawny, but the 

 tip of the tail is white, and long, black whisker-hairs 

 stand over the eyes and lips. 



It lives north of the Cape of Good Hope, in bur- 

 rows in the sand, feeds upon Mice, birds and insects, 

 is fierce, cunning and agile, and has hardly ever been 

 hunted; its life and habits have never been observed 

 to any extent. 



The Suricate The Suricate (Suricata tetradactyla) 

 and Its inhabits Africa from Lake Tsad to 



Strong Claws. t h e Cape of Good Hope. The snout 

 has something of the proboscis in its character, the 

 legs are long and the feet are provided with four 

 toes and long, stout claws. The claws of the fore 

 paws show a higher development than those of any 

 other member of the family. With their aid the 

 Suricate can easily burrow long and deep tunnels in 

 the ground. 



The Suricate reminds one as much of the Mun- 

 gooses as of the Weasels; it is a small," long-legged 

 creature, with a length of from twenty to thirty inches, 

 of which the tail takes up half. Its rough coat is 

 grayish brown, traversed by darker bands. 



There are no known species' of the Viverrine fam- 

 ily in America. The Cacomixle, or Mountain Cat, 

 found in Mexico and California, was formerly con- 

 sidered as forming a group of this family, but it is 

 now placed with the Raccoons, to which it is more 

 closely allied. 



TTbe flfoarten jfamil^ 



THIRD FAMILY: Mustelim:. 



The family of the Martens, or as it is sometimes 

 called, the Weasel family, shows a greater variety of 

 species than that of the Viverridae or Civets. It is a 

 difficult matter to give a general description of this 

 family, for the structure of the body, of the teeth and 

 of the feet is subject to more variations than those 

 of any other Carnivora. We can only say that the 

 members of this family are small or medium-sized 

 Beasts of Prey, with bodies of very elongated shape 

 resting on very short legs. The feet have either four 

 or five toes. These animals are provided with scent- 

 pouches like the Civets, but the secretion of these 

 glands is by no means an agreeable perfume, and in 



some cases has an abominably fetid odor. The fur 

 is usually thick and of fine texture, and in this family 

 we find the most valuable fur-producing animals. 

 Where and Members of the Marten family are 

 How the Marten distributed over all continents ex- 

 Family Lives. cep t Australia. They endure all cli- 

 mates, on plains as well as mountains. Their haunts 

 are most often in woods or rocky regions, but they 

 also frequent the open country, gardens and human 

 dwellings. Some live in the water, some on terra 

 firma, those of the latter class being excellent climb- 

 ers, and they all know how to swim. Some burrow 

 holes in the ground, others take possession of exist- 



